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Actually, the Dodgers went to China in 2008, not last spring training. Last spring training was free of gimmicks, which surely contributed to the team being ready to play at the beginning of the season, and probably did as much as anything to their winning their division. This year it's only two days, probably only a few players on the real team, and the manager only gone for probably 4 days in all, so most likely it won't have the same distracting effect as the China trip/split spring season did in 2008.

This morning I've been watching a show on MLB Network called "MLB Network Remembers with Bob Costas." If you haven't peeped it, I highly recommend it. The show goes through all sorts of amazing, but somewhat unknown stories and oddities that have happened around baseball over the years.

One vignette narrated by Costas blew me away - I never had heard this. Of course, all of us who are either old enough or who bought that book at kids that told of weird baseball stories know about Eddie Gaedel, the Little Person who was inserted in the White Sox lineup as a gimmick by owner Bill Veeck. However, I never knew that in 1959 Veeck set up another stunt where Gaedel and several other Little People dressed as martians complete with ray guns, descended onto the field in a helicopter, and proceeded to "take hostage" Nellie Fox and Luis Aparicio. The show actually had footage of the little alien invaders trotting down the 3rd baseline. I had never seen or heard of this, and I was on the floor laughing as I viewed it 8 times in a row to make sure my eyes weren't deceiving me. That crazy Veeck...